Author: RiikiTikiTavi
Fandom: Rurouni Kenshin
Rating: Pretty darned hard "R"
Pairing: Kenshin + Kaoru, although they aren't present here except in spirit.
Warnings: Those confounded woodcuts make their final appearance...
Archive: Um, I kinda like to keep track of where these hentai things are when I write 'em. So, no archives, no MSTings.
The Bridal Discussion, Epilog
Aizu, six months later...
It had been a busy day at the clinic. Not that any days were less than busy, Megumi reflected, but some were busier than others. Aizu had been gripped for weeks by a influenza outbreak. Although the most dangerous part of the epidemic seemed to be over, this appeared to be the day when everyone with nagging, persistent symptoms decided to pay the local physician a visit. Megumi dutifully mixed up cough suppressants and prescribed fever reducers, losing count of the number of times she had to explain that medical science didn't have a cure for influenza and that all she could do was treat the symptoms. When one of her assistants took her aside to say that a gentleman was asking for her, Megumi almost snapped that she was far too busy for any social calls. She reined in her temper, however, and said she would see him in her office in a few minutes. Most likely it was just a traveling salesman with some medical components he wished to show her, but every now and again someone interested in making a monetary contribution to the clinic wandered in. The local farmers and villagers would sometimes bring in food or do chores in payment for her services, but hard currency was a rare commodity in these parts. A potential donor could not be ignored.
Apart from running her hands over her hair to make sure it was smooth, Megumi made no concessions to vanity before she entered her office to meet with her unknown guest. For one thing, she was a strikingly beautiful woman and knew it; she had no need to primp. The other, however, was that whether the visitor was a salesman or a contributor her beauty could work against her. A female doctor who looked as cool as a geisha was hard to take seriously. So she kept her slightly-soiled smock on and did not hide her faint impatience as she bowed to the young man kneeling next to the low writing table. "I'm very busy right now," she said with a brisk professional air, "so I hope you'll forgive me if I ask for brevity from my honored guest...?"
The honored guest graced her with a small smile. "You are looking very well, Megumi-sensei, as always. If you have patients that you need to see before talking to me, I'm quite happy to wait."
Megumi blinked. Who...? She looked again at the young man, this time actually taking in his appearance, the even features and the long hair that fell smoothly on either side of his face, the serious eyes that gazed steadily into hers. "Katsuhiro-san?" she asked uncertainly.
Tsukioka Katsuhiro inclined his head. "I'm pleased you can remember my name without Sano nearby to remind you," he said, a little dryly.
At a rare loss for words, Megumi closed the sliding door behind her as she tried to gather her wits together. Kneeling across the table from him, she contemplated her unexpected guest as her mind ran through what little she knew of him. Although her sly comments had led Kaoru (and Kenshin, for that matter) to believe that the two had a close friendship, in truth Megumi barely knew Katsu. He was Sano's friend rather than Kenshin's, and although he very occasionally showed up at the dojo when she lived in Tokyo, it was always in Sano's company. He had been with Sano when she had impulsively asked him if he had any woodcuts that might be of practical use to the clinic. Rooster-head had made a sarcastic gibe, but Katsu had just gazed at her with his dark eyes and said he might have a few prints left from his artist days. When he delivered the woodcuts to the clinic he had given them to Dr. Gensai, not to her. Thinking back on it, Megumi realized that she had never before seen him except when he was accompanied by Sano, and certainly never once been alone with him. "I'm pleased to see you as well, Katsuhiro-san, especially as so few of my old acquaintances from Tokyo make it this far north. Is there something I can do for you?"
Katsu placed two packages, both wrapped in white paper and tied with red ribbons, on the table between them. "According to Kenshin-san, I have neglected my sacred duty to future generations," he remarked as tapped a finger against the top one. "I'm here to rectify that." He placed his hands on his knees, gazing at her expectantly.
Megumi pulled aside the delicate paper and stared in surprise at what was revealed under it. It was a woodcut of a wedding ceremony, a bride and a groom bowing to each other as they knelt before a shrine. An inkling of what else lay within the package came to her. She begin taking out the different woodcuts and laying them on the table. They formed a sequence starting with the ceremony that carried well beyond the dousing of the lanterns at night. And it was, Megumi was gratified to see, a very reasonable sequence, one that included restrained hugs and chaste kisses as well as more tumultuous embraces as the evening continued. "Katsuhiro-san, these are wonderful," she said with perfect sincerity. "It's as if I commissioned these personally!"
"If you are pleased then I am pleased," Katsu replied formally.
Smiling in delight, Megumi raised her head to assure him that she was very pleased with his contribution to her clinic, meaning to archly add that brides for miles around no doubt would be as well. She found that he was gazing at her intently, so intently that the words died on her lips. Megumi, who could discuss intimate details of personal interactions between men and women with perfect strangers of either sex, was suddenly more flustered than she had ever been in her entire life. She dropped her gaze back to the woodcuts, finding it easier to study the activities depicted on them than to look into those steadfast eyes for one more second.
"I had several sets printed," Katsu finally said as Megumi refused to look anywhere else but the woodcuts strewn across the table. "I must say, I've never seen my printers so attentive to detail before! I've already given a set to Dr. Gensai's clinic. I thought you might advise me on where some of the rest would be best sent."
"Any clinic would be very happy to have these..." Megumi could not believe how faint her voice was. What in heaven's name was wrong with her?
"I have no interest in donating anything to clinics that cater to the spoiled rich brats of the Meiji regime," Katsu interrupted her. "Besides, they can afford to pay my outrageous fees! I was hoping for a list of free clinics, like yours."
Feeling she was, perhaps, just composed enough not to blush any more (which was irritating, since 'blushing' was something she associated with immature brats like that raccoon girl and not with sophisticated women such as herself), Megumi managed to meet his gaze as she remarked, "You could have obtained such a list from Dr. Gensai."
"Oh, of course," he said. "I think, however, that these are best given to you, not him."
He was holding out the smaller package to her, a expression on his face that she could only describe as 'earnest'. Megumi took refuge in her usual coy manner. "And what have we here, then? Prints for the groom?"
"A small contribution to your dowry."
On his words, Megumi knew what had to be in the package, even why he was giving her such intent and meaningful stares. As if in a dream she accepted the compact bundle from his hands. If she had been feeling flustered before, it was nothing compared to what she felt when she carefully drew aside the paper and saw what was unquestionably her own profile depicted on images that were not prints but originals. Slowly she lifted her head to stare at him in blank astonishment. Even given that this was Katsu-san who, as an artist and a revolutionary and a maker of explosives and an owner of an anti-government newspaper, was prone to unpredictable and eccentric behavior, there was no mistaking what giving a woman a gift like this meant.
Especially given who other than herself was depicted in these particular drawings.
"Ah," he murmured, "finally she looks at me and sees me. I thought I would always be nothing more than Sano's shadow in your eyes. I have waited a very long time for such an expression on your face, Megumi-sensei."
Even as stunned as she was, Megumi was not a person who could remain speechless for long. "I couldn't possibly leave my practice," she finally said. "It's too important to the people here. They have no one else."
His dark eyes were on her face, cool and slightly amused. "We live in a new era where a woman doctor runs her own clinic for the poor and the son of a peasant farmer publishes a newspaper. I, too, believe in the importance of your work here. I have no desire to step back in time, and I would not ask you to give it up. With the train, Aizu is not so far from Tokyo. "
Truth be told, at her age she was not likely to ever receive a better offer, and a man who would allow her to keep her clinic was not someone to be dismissed out of hand. Megumi dropped her gaze back to the woodcuts and remarked, rather inanely, "You have a few details wrong."
At that, finally, a hint of color rose in Katsu's cheeks and his words became a little garbled. "I had to use my imagination for everything from the neck down. Well, except for your hands. You have the most elegant hands... Fortunately artists are good at that. Imaging things, I mean."
Ah, he can feel nerves. Good. No woman wants to marry a statue. Megumi looked again at the set of drawings, studying not her depiction but his, and found herself smirking slightly as she wondered just how much artistic license he had taken with his own form. There was much promise in this relationship, it seemed; still, she was a mature woman with her own means of support. She had neither need nor desire to enter into a union with someone she barely knew. Someone she knew and liked; well, that was a different matter. Scooting back from the table a bit, she put her head nearly against the floor in a formal bow. When she returned to a seated position she saw that Katsu was utterly frozen in place. Not even his eyes moved. "Is that a 'yes'?" he breathed.
"That is an acknowledgment of the very great honor you do me by asking. Katsu-san, how long are you staying in Aizu?"
Katsu hesitated, trying to read her intentions in her face, but Megumi had completely recovered her composure and he saw only what she allowed him to see. "It would be no trouble to remain for the next three or four days."
"In that case, would you care to join me for tea after the clinic closes? I find that I would not mind getting to know you what you are like without the Rooster-head interrupting us every other minute."
His eyes sparked when he smiled, lighting up his entire face, and Megumi found herself hoping that the 'knowing' process would not take very long at all. "Megumi-sensei, I would like that very much."
Notes and such: If you enjoyed this fanfic, consider checking out my "Going Up!" novella on Amazon, scheduled to be released June 15, 2017 under my pen name Safyre Starr. It's quite a bit more graphic, so make sure you're okay with that kind of thing before buying it!
